Steady Growth for Business Intelligence Seen in 2010, but Twitter Data Won't be in the Growth Plans

A new survey of business intelligence (BI) practitioners worldwide reveals that a majority expects the use of BI at their organizations to continue growing at a steady pace in the new year. Survey respondents said, however, that they remain unsure about the value of analyzing data obtained from social media sites such as Twitter or Facebook.

The survey was conducted globally by Kognitio, a provider of BI and data warehousing solutions, and Baseline Consulting. Almost two-thirds (63%) of the people who responded said they are "undecided" about the value of data collected from social media sites to help them understand more about their organization or customers. Another 23% called social media "overrated," saying "there are not as many customer conversations going on as the media would have us believe." Only 14% said they want to incorporate data from Twitter and other sites as part of their ongoing data analysis efforts.

But 29% said they are under pressure to justify the money they have spent on BI projects, and are looking for "quick wins or new opportunities." In a separate question, 36% said the speed to delivery of BI projects will be an imperative in 2010, saying they will need to test, evaluate, and deploy new systems within a matter of weeks. That is a marked change from previous years, where BI projects were routinely expected to take months to implement correctly, and where obtaining usable information could take a year or more.
The survey also found that:

* Almost half of respondents (49%) said BI is becoming more appreciated as a strategic tool at their organizations, with the business side increasingly embracing its value; 43%, however, believe that BI will not grow as an enterprise-wide initiative, with "pockets" still existing across their organizations;

* BI practitioners expect to see the deeper use of the technology at their firms in 2010, and plan to add capabilities to additional lines of business, with almost one-third (31%) saying they plan to add new BI tools;

* 55% believe that business intelligence is used by their firms for both strategic and operational purposes, a clear move toward "pervasive BI;" and

* The adoption of in-memory databases, which enable faster analysis of immense amounts of data, is predicted to grow slowly by 61% of respondents, who said their price/value point will continue to fall.

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